Brooklyn Park man, 43, dies hours after being shot at motel Neighbors said he talked to 3 men before incident

Because of incorrect information supplied by the Anne Arundel County police, an article in yesterday's editions of The Sun misidentified a man found fatally shot late Thursday near his room at a Brooklyn Park motel. The victim was 43-year-old Stanley Roger Cobb.

The Sun regrets the error.

A 43-year-old man who was shot Thursday night at a Brooklyn Park motel died early yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, Anne Arundel County police said.

Christopher William Cobb, who lived in a room at the Park Plaza Motel at 4900 Ritchie Highway, was near a staircase on the motel's parking lot about 11: 40 p.m. when he was shot once in the upper torso, police said. Cobb staggered up to a second-floor balcony and yelled for an ambulance, motel neighbors told police.

FOR THE RECORD - CORRECTION

Cobb died at 3: 15 a.m. yesterday, police said.

No suspects

Police spokeswoman Carol Frye said she had no description of suspects and could not provide information about a motive.

Neighbors, who asked not to be identified, said they had seen Cobb talking to three men at the bottom of the staircase at the side of the motel just before the shooting. They said the men ran into a nearby alley.

A 40-year-old neighbor said he was sleeping in his room when he heard the gunshot. When he emerged, he saw Cobb staggering up the stairs, calling for help.

"I called for an ambulance and came back out and he was all folded up," he said. "We put a towel over him and put pressure" on the wound.

Some neighbors described Cobb as a quiet, friendly man who lived in a second-floor room with a girlfriend and her son, about 2 years old. Cobb was a mechanic in a body shop, they said, and his girlfriend stayed at home.

She could not be reached for comment.

'Never rowdy'

"He never seemed to cause no trouble," said a 37-year-old woman who has lived at the motel about a month. "He would sit out on the deck during the evening and drink or have cookouts. They never were rowdy or anything like that."

Cobb had lived at the Park Plaza for at least a year. Kris Patel, a desk clerk, said the motel's guests are mostly out-of-town contractors working nearby for a few weeks at a time.

Patel deferred questions about Cobb and the incident to a manager who did not return phone calls. Motel employees said Cobb was friendly and paid his rent on time every month.

A Brooklyn Park couple who live near the motel said Cobb and others on his floor often had loud parties where they drank on the deck and whistled at passing women.

"You get to know the regulars there when you pass by," said a 31-year-old man who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation.

He said he has been frustrated for years with the motel management for not screening its customers carefully and has complained several times. He said he often sees drug dealers and prostitutes near the motel and once saw a couple having sex in the alley by the motel in the middle of the afternoon.

"They need to close down," the man said. "We don't need this, especially with kids in the neighborhood."